Research Practice ror Persons with Severc Disabilities ...

Research & Practice ror Persons with Severc Disabilities copyright 2009 by
2008. Vol. 33. No. 1-2.48-58
TASH

The Doubting Dance: Contributions to a

History of ParentlProfessional Interactions

in Early 20th Century America

Philip M. Ferguson
Chapman University

The relationship of professionals with families of chil- would allow them to demonstrate their expertise. The
dren and adults wiJh intellecuwl disabilities is a key call for new services, however, was often put forth as a
component in the planning and delivery of effective and response to the needs and demands of families who
enduring suppon services. Yet, the history ofsuch relation- could not care for their children with disabilities. At the
ship!>' is not \Vell understood- After briefly describing the same time, these same professionals would also portray
context for these relationships in the early 20th century, families as sources of resistance to tbeir services, making
a thematic anaLysis is presell1ed of correspondence be- it necessary to either avoid or overcome their opposi-
tween parents and professionals at one instinaion for peo- tion to "giving up" their children to the control of the
ple with. intellectual dimbilities during the earLy 1900s. cxpert. (Deschenes, Cuban. & Tyack. 2oo1;Ferguson &
The study concludes with a brief discussion of what we Ferguson, ZOO6;Lazerson, 1983).
can. learn from this troubled history to improve famiLy/
profeSSional relationships. From the earliest specialized asylum for feeblemjnded
children in the middle of the 19th century up through the
DESCRIPTORS: history, families, institutions, 1960s, the official public policy in most slates was that the
professional/family relationships best situation (or children with intellectual disabilities-
especially those with more significant cognitive impair-
Parents of children and young adults with disabilities ments and/or challenging behaviors-was to be placed
have always had a complicated relationship with the in an institution specifically designed for their care and
professionals in medicine, education, and otber fields custody. Certainly, this was the opinion of most medical
wbo claim special expertise to help, or even cure, their and health care professionals involved in the treatment
offspring. On the one hand, the families are often grate- of such children. Throughout lhi::; period, many parents
ful for whatever help and support they can find. On seemingly agreed with this recommendation. Some of
the other hand, they equally often end up expressing a the earliest parent advocacy groups for families with
desire for more or different types of belp than they find children with intellectual disabilities were actually orga-
available. Throughout the history of disability and the nized to provide poljtical and financial support to the
formal service systems tbat emerged to respond LO institutions where their children resided. The Children's
that segment of the population (e.g., special education, Benevolent League of Washington began in 1939 with
bealth care, rehabilitation), there bas been a choreogra- just such a mission (Schwartzenberg, ZOO5). In a pre-
phy of care as parents and professionals danced around sentation by one of the founders of this group to an
the issue of who would take tbe lead in providing sup- audience of institutional professionals (Sampson, 1947),
port for dependent children. This is no where clearer the support of families for institutions was seen as both
than in the evolution of formal services for children with hard won and valuable.
intellectual disabilities (Farber, 1986).
[F]rom my experience, the League does eliminate,
This study explores one corner of the history of by training, by explanation, and by regulation mucb
family-professional relationships in the area of intel- of the time that would otherwise be wasted by our
lectual disabilities by looking at a particular period of superintendents, their assistants and attendants in
rapid expansion of services in the United States, roughly useless conversation and argument with disgruntled
1900 to 1930. In this era, professionals with new spe- individuals. OUf members know better than to find
cializations (e.g., clinical psychology, special education, fault with minor annoyances (p. 189).
social work) pushed for new or expanded services tbat

Address all correspondence and reprint requests to Philip For otber parents, the recommendation to institutional-
ize their children became the only choice that could sal-
Ferguson, PhD, Professor, College of Educational Studies, vage the welfare of both the child with the disability and
Chapman Univcrsity, One University Drive, Orange. CA 92866. the rest of the family. As an anonymous parent framed
E-mail: [email protected]

48

The Doubling Dance 49

the matter in 1951, the decision to place a child in an not to be taken as serious data for use in developing a
institution was., indeed, tragic. However, research-based understanding of how parents reacted
to having a child with a disability and what they needed
[t]he greatest tragedy occurs in the many cases to overcome that "tragedy." The need to preserve and to
when parents cannot bring thcmselves to part with explore the parental voice directly is now seldom chal~
their child. Timc and again this results eventually in lenged. Indeed, most educators and disability specialists
even greater unhappiness, particularly in families acknowledge those parental voices as essential parts
where there are other children. Almost any social of our knowledge base about the meanings of disabil-
welfare worker can recite cases where hopelessly ity across cultures and class, categories, and contexts.
retarded children. kept within the family. have Family-professional linkages are increasingly viewed.
warped the lives of other children and, frequently at Icast in theory, as mutual exchanges of infomlation,
have been the means of untold hardship and planning, and support on behalf of the ch..ild involved
ultimate separation of the parents (Anonymous, (e.g., Ferguson & Gallndo, 2008; Kalyanpur & Harry,
1951/1969, p. 87). 1999). However, much work remains 10 be done by
scholars to fill out the historical record of how parents
Each of these statements nicely captures both sides of of earlier eras described their experiences (Abel, 2000;
the parental response to professional recommendations. Brockley, 2004; Burack-Weiss, 2006; Richards, 2004).
In the midst of endorsing the policy of institutionaliza-
lion, the parent~authors also acknowledge that many Robert Berkho[er (as cited in Rury, 1993, p. 247) has
other parents rejected the experts' call to "part with argued that one of the main requirements for historians
their child" or refused to be silent about the "minor is to "fill in the gaps." The purpose of this report is to
annoyances" they found in the care of their children make a contribution to that effort with regard to the
after they were institutionalized. The statistics back untold history of parent/professional interactions. This
up this acknowledgment. Never more than 10% of the study narrows its focus to the relationship of families
population viewed as intelieclUally disabled was housed and professionals in first few decades of the 20th cen-
in the large state institutions that proliferated after the tury and to one specific setting. It is part of a larger
first one started in Massachusetts in 1848 (Ferguson. project that seeks to bring a disabiJity studies orienta-
1994, pp. 9-11). Still, the demand [or instiultional place- tion to the understanding and interpretation of families
ment was real. Waiting lists for admission existed even who have a child with a disability (Ferguson & Ferguson,
before some institutions opened their doors. For many 2006,2008). The foundation of that effort is based in the
years., county poorhouses, reform schools., and other fa- collection and analysis of family narratives about that
cilities took on many children viewed as feebleminded. experience. "The hope is eventually to create a djgitized,
However, equally tTue as a factor in this gap between searchable archive of family narratives covering the
policy and practice was the steady countertheme of re- full range of disabilities and contexts within which par~
sistance that a significant portion of parents put forth to ents and children build their lives.
having their children institutionalized in the first place
or leaving them there for long after an initial admission. The project has developed a three-pan typology o[
This account explores one setting where examples of family narratives, framed from the perspective of how
thal family resistancc arose to the recommendations they come to us: (1) received, (2) generated, and (3)
of the helping professionals who were the main source of found. Received narratives are those published accounts
expertise and information about the appropriate care written by parents or other family members. Whether
of their children. book length accounts, chapters in books, or articles in
journal and magazines, these arc intentional accounts
A Typology of Family Narratives written by individuals who have both the inclination
and the opportunity to organize their thoughts into
Until the last few decades, the portrayal of families a narrative meant to be shared with others. Generated
of children with disabilities of any kind, bul especially narratives, by contrast, are those created artifacts of
those with intellectual disabilities, suffered from the same (usually) qualitative research. These arc in-depth oral
constrictions as the history of people with disability in histories and semistructured interviews, conducted by
general. TIle research literature was dominated by the researchers to allow a purposeful sample of families
voices of professionals, creating an official discourse of to tell their stories in their owo words. These are
parental response to disability as, at best, one of mov- families who mayor may not have otherwise preserved
ing gradually through stages of grief similar to those these experiences wiLhout a specific invitation. Finally,
supposedly foUowed by news of a terminal disease there are the found narratives. Found narratives are
(Ferguson, 2(01). Allhough almost always available to simply those primary sources familiar to historians, con-
some extent in the popular press., published accounts of sisting of diaries, letters, scrapbooks. and other unpUb-
their experiences written by parents themselves were lished accounts created by families with no intention of
sharing them with a larger public. It is these "found
narratives" that serve as the primary source for this

50 Ferguson

paper. In particular, the paper will draw on the parent associated with types of narrative and discourse analysis
correspondence (along with the superintendent's re- (Connolly & Clnndinin, 1990; Gee. Michaels, & O'Connor.
sponses) found in case files of residents admitted to the 1992). In this approach to textual data, analysis begins with
Fairview Training Center in Salem, Oregon, between a more wholistic attempt to understand the document as
its opening in 1908 and roughly 1930. a whole, in context, before breaking it into coded segments
of disconnected text. Tt is. in many ways, a more literary
Methods approach, trying to find "the voice" behind the words, and
is especially appropriate for capturing the perspective of
'nlC Fairview Training Center in Salem. Oregon, was families whom history has largely silenced. Out of this
the main institution for people with intellectual disabil- cont.extual framing came the t.hemes discussed here. The
ities in the state for over 90 years. As part of a larger themes were then used to retlJrn to the letters to find
history of the institution [rom its opening in 1908 to its specific passages for appropriate illustration.
closure in 2000 (Ferguson, Ferguson, & Brodsky, 2008),
access was given to case files from residents admitted Overcoming Parental Resistance
up to 1930. By that dale, approximately 2000 people
had been admitted to Fairview. Of this number, ap- Before turning to the parent narratives found in t.he
proximately 1000 still resided at Fairview, the remainder Fairview case files., it is important to set the scene and to
having died, been discharged, transferred, or "eloped" look more closely at how professionals were portraying
(i.e., escaped). Of the 2000 admissions, some of the files parents in these early decades of the 20th century. 1n
were missing. Others had tillie more than a name and some ways. such evidence could be framed as a fourth
a number contained within. Finally. a number of files type of parent source: the inferred narrative. By reading
had been screened and selectively thinned as part of the the professional literature of the era with a critical eye,
closure process, with only essential medical and legal it is not at all difficult to infer the more positive version
records retained. What remained for review were ap- of parental resistance to separation from their children
proximately 500 files from these early admissions. Of that the experts were bemoaning so loudly and so often.
these 500, approximately 150 were judged to have some In a time of expanding services and increasing specialj-
examples of correspondence from family, friends, or local zation within both special education and what would
officials from the counties or origin for the individuals come to be called "school psychology," one of the greatest
being admitted. challenges to the experts was prying the children away
(Tom the families. Yet, as others have pointed alit. such
The correspondence in these files was explored for separation of child from parent was deemed essential.
themes using standard methods of document analysis As the family histOlian, John Demos (1983) described the
(Maxwell, 2005; Marshall & Rossman, 2006) within a general view:
larger context of historical iJ1lerpretation. Historical re-
search has been described as perhaps "the oldest form Considered overall, dependency is both a symptom
of qualitative research currently in use" (RuTy, 1993, and an effect of social disorder-and it threatens
p. 247). The claim is not that historians never use sta- to become a cause of further disorder. The appro-
tistical techniques. Rather. the point is that historical priate response is, therefore, to isolate the individ-
research is generally both inductive and interpretive in uals involved. Only thus can they be "reformed";
approach. It is inductive in its use of the specific-the and only thus can a truly massive contamination
event, the episode, the individual, and the setting-to be averted..
build to the general, to move (rom examples to story
and from isolated incident to overarching narrative. It is Simply stated: dependence (requently implies
also unavoidably interpretive. As one historian or edu- domestic no less than social disorder-Lhe family
cat.ion has put it, historical inquiry "seeks to interpret has failed in its nurturing anel protective func-
and explain the significance of past experiences, not tions.... Tn specific cases the family becomes the
merely to document them" (Edson, 1988, p. 48). enemy of the asylum-and of the rerorm which the
asylum promises (p. 168, emphasis in original).
Each case file was examined for content, including
the presence of any communications from family or The specific form of dependency represented by reeble·
friends of the individual. The correspondence in indi- mindedlless presented perhaps the greatest threat of all.
vidual files ranged from a single note around the time of One asylum official (from the Elwyn institution outside
admission to decades of letters sent by various family of Philadelphia) put the matter in stark terms in 1889
members. A purposeful sample of the 150 case files (Dechert, 1889). 11J.e effort to institutionalize was only
selected with correspondence was selected for more de· superficially t.o preserve the family. lbe larger-and more
tailed review, emphasizing those files with replies from urgent-need was to prevent the family from damaging
the superintendent. One hundred files were selected. society through its ineffective attempts to raise the defec-
These were read several times and thematically ana- tive child at home.
lyzed using «contextualizing strategies" (Maxwell, 2005)

"Jbe Doubling Dance 51

Who can doubt the existence of an increasing injury foreseen as districts began choosing what to call their
to society where it permits such children [imbeciles] new special education classrooms and schools for
to grow up without restraint and improvement into feebleminded children. TIle first such public schools
manhood and womanhood? In early childhood, they in St. Louis opened in 1908. From the beginning, the
may be sheltered by fond parents or kind friends; superintendent specifically argued to stay away from
but they outlive parents and guardians, and after a the terms usually associated with feeblemindedness. The
few years become the prey of the vicious, or them- separate schools were, instead, to be officially called
selves become the teachers of vice and crime. They "Special Schools for Individual Training" to avoid "the
had hands, but they were not taught to use them; stigma which the name, 'Schools for Defectives' would
passions, but they were not taught to restrain them; carry" (St Louis Public Schools, 190511906, p. 208).
mental faculties, more or less impaired, which be-
came more obscure, thus making them servants of One example of the fear of such parental resistance
their passions and victims of the depraved (p. 84). can be found in the earliest days of special class for-
mation in Boston. In a presentation to institutional
The "plan of attack" on this new enemy of social superintendents about these classes., David Lincoln (1902/
order (i.e.. the resistant family) received much public 1903) specifically mentioned how efforts were actually
discussion among professionals of all types and took a made to keep the advent of the classes something of a
number of directions from gentle persuasion to legal secret. The worry was lhat lao much public conversation
prosecution. Indeed. the burgeoning system of spe· by professionals about the extent of the «problem" would
cial education programs in public school classes and just increase resistance from the parents who found their
separate facilities was seen by both educators and in· children as targets of such campaigns.
stitution administrators as a natural location for a col-
laborative effort to begin the separation of defective No appeal has been made to the public: the for-
children from their families. Such special education mation of a "movement" has been rather deprecated
schools could become, in effect, clearinghouses for those from the feeling that unguarded statements easily
wbo should be moved on lo institutional custody, might be made which could be misunderstood by
overcoming the resistance of families by making the the parents, and might awaken feelings of mistrust
initial placement ooe where the child remained at (p. 85).
home and a part of the local school system. The special
school, it seems, could be presented to parents as a In the discussion following the presentation of
less stigmatizing, less disruptive stage of professional Lincoln's paper, Alexander Johnson from the institu-
intervention, which could then gradually transition into tion in Indiana agrees wholeheartedly with both ends
permanent institutionalization. of the problem. First, these defective children must be
separated from their families and prepared for re-
Proressionals have seemingly always struggled to over- moval to the institution (the clearinghouse idea), but also
come the resistance of at least some families to hav- care must be taken not lo be too straightforward with
ing their children identified as disabled and especially as the families.
intellectually disabled (or whatever the term of choice
was in a given era). The Rome Custodial Asylum for There is no one so ill·fitted to train a backward
Unteachable Idiots in upstate New York, opened in child as the parent... We cannOl get away from
1894, might be recognized for a certain transparency in its the unpleasant reflections which follow the use of
choice of names. However, by 1904, the superintendent the word imbecile. It is very difficult for parents to
was pleading for a name change: realize that their child is feeble-minded (Lincoln,
190211903, p. 90).
The time has now arrived when it is a fully dem-
onstrated fact that the term "unteachable idiots" The strategy was not just to use the special school as
should 110 longer be used in connection with this an intermediate stage of custody, situated to postpone
asylum, or in fact any other, it being surely an un- and, it was hoped, to avoid altogether the parental re-
warranted stigma on the lives of these poor unfor- sistance to later institutional placement. There was also
tunates to so characterize them (Rome Custodial the matter of avoiding offensive labels, as Johnson sug-
Asylum, 1904, p. 23). gesls, such as «feebleminded." Indeed, despite efforts of
many educators and school psychologists (e.g., Elizabeth
The name was eventually changed not only to Farrell, 1. E. W. Wallin) to develop elaborate djstinc-
escape the custodial connotations of "unteachable" in- tions and subcategories between truly feebleminded and
mates but also to link up positively with the other places "merely backward," it was also readily acknowledged
where "teachable" children went. By 1919, the institu- that the new terms were less offensive to the parents.
lion became known simply as the Rome State School. Elizabeth Farrell (the head of special education classes
For public schools, the same power of language was for New York City schools) cites an account of Detroit's

52 Ferguson

ungradecl classes as justified by more than simple educa· that the supcri.ntendent relented within a year to the
tionaI appropriateness: protests of "infuriated parents" (Wallin, 1955. p. 137).

TIle present melhod [of labeling children as back- The transition from home to school to institution did
ward and putting them in ungraded classes}, how- nOt always go smoothly, however. Ideally, from the pro-
ever, has it'i advantages in that there is less opposition fessionals' point of view, the special education system and
to the segregation of feeblemjndecl children where the institutions were to become one long continuum of
all are classed as backward than there would be if placements, with differences in degree but not in kind
these unfortunate children were placed in a room when a child moved from one placement to another.
known to be maintained [or the express purpose of Clearly, many parents did not seem to share this per-
caring for mentally defective children (Farrell, 1914, ception. Complaints from teachers and supervisors like
p.59) those of Ms. Cunningham in St. Louis became more and

Some psychologists, however, thought that defending more noticeable as the special education classes prolif-
ungraded classes over separate schools on this basis
was a mistake. Henry H. Goddard, for example, argued erated. Increasingly, educators complained that children
instead that the prospect of family resistance was often who should be institutionalized were, instead, remain-
overblown because parents "can easily be convinced" ing in their classrooms at the behest of their families. Tn
that separate school was tbe most advantageous place- testimony before a New York Slate Commission on the
ment for their troublesome children. "In such schools provision of services [or the mentally deficient, Elizabeth
the defective children are away [rom the normal children Irwin (of the Public Education Association in New York
and escape the bullying and teasing to which they are City) described the futility of her efforts to persuade
liable" (Goddard, 1923, p. 66). parents to send those feebleminded children between
the ages of 12 and 14 years to institutions in upstate
For his part, the prominent psychologist, Wallace Wallin, New York.
recounts in his memoirs an episode at the beginning of
his term as director of the Psycho-Educational Clinic in The point that I think is most interesting in con-
51. Louis. According to Wallin (1955, p. 137), the super- nection with that is that out of 100 cases, I was only
intendent of the St. Louis schools called him to a meeting able to persuade the parents to send twenty children,
soon after his arrival in 1915. The superintendent reported and of those twenty children only Cifteen remained
that the supel\1isor of the separate schools (a woman a year, and at the present time, so far as T know,
named Kate Cunningham) [elt that "unteachable institu- three more have come out of lhe institutions and
tiona I cases" were being admitted to her "classes," lead.ing there are now only two out of the effort which put
to dissatisfaction among the teachers. Of course, Wallin on the entire hWldred that are sliJJ in institutions,
himself was consistent in arguing that "idiots" should be which seems to me to point to the fact that until we
excluded as well. In this case, however, Wallin felt that have some law by which the parents can be made
the proposed cutoff point was being set too high and that to put the children there, or until we have some law
the superintendent would be faced witil an untenable di- that will compel them to keep them there once they
lemma. On the one hand, are there, that the public school is the place in which
these ch.ildren have to be educated (New York State
It would be manifestly illogical and absurd to Commission, 1915/1976, p. ll5).
refuse to admit the children into the special classes
specifically established for them but to allow them Many such commitment laws were eventually enacted.
to remain in the regular grades, which was [the As slates found a persistent resistance to institutiooaliza~
superintendent's] proposition. On the other hand, tion among a sizable minority of families, the legislatures
to exclude aU seriously retarded children with less moved beyond euphemisms and persuasion to forced
than a six year mentality or a first grade competency segregation from home and community of those deemed
level would mean the exclusion of a large percent- a potential menace to society. Of course, this legal co-
age of the candidates for the special classes and ercion grew in response to the rising fears of the eugenics
would result in violent repercussions from the par- era that failure to act more forcefully with families was
ent.~ of the excluded children and possibly from their threatening the very foundations of civilized society.
pOlitic"l representatives (Wallin, 1955, p. 137).
The Institutional Context:
For Wallin, the lesson of the episode was that the Fairview Training Center
wrath of parents would descend upon any administrator
who refused to follow the placement recommendations By 1908, when Fairview opened, there were 33 so-called
of the psychologists instead of the teachers (Ferguson,
2005). He reports that his predictions proved true and instilutions for the feebleminded in 22 different states.
Over 17,000 people were housed in these specialized
institutions, yet most institutional professionals warned
that this represented only a small proportion of the total

The Doubting Dance 53

feebleminded population. With a growing wave of im- By 1930, Fairview had close to 1000 inmates. It would
migration from Southern Europe and Asia and a steady stabilize around that number for most of the next decade
migration from the farm to the city, the perceived fear before again undergoing rapid growth. After a number
of many leaders in society was that the strength of of rapid changes in administration in the first few years
American culture was being dangerously diluted by the of its existence, Fairview came under the leadership of
proliferation of the incompetent, the immoral, and the Dr. 1. N. Smith from 1915 until 1930. It was Smith who
unproductive. was the superintendent responding to most of the parent
correspondence described here.
Whether through persuasion or coercion, parents by
the thousands did send their intellectually disabled chil- Negotiating Custody and Care:
dren to the growing number of these state institutions Family-Professional Interactions at Fairview
officially designated for their care and custody. Ibe ex-
perience in the state of Oregon illustrates the pattern As mentioned earlier, one of the common justifica·
well (Ferguson et aI., 2008). TIle fonnal record tells us tions [or the creation and the expansion of specialized
that the Fairview Training Center in Salem, Oregon- institutions such as Fairview, the Oregon State Hospital,
the "State lnstitution for the Feeble-Minded" as it was the State Schools for the Blind and the Deaf, the 10-
originally known-received its first resident on Novem- dustrial School [or Girls. and so on was that families
ber 30, 1908. By the time it closed, almost 10.000 people were demanding such facilities for the care and support
had lived all or part of their lives there. All of them had of their loved ones. The case flies bear this out to some
families or friends of one type or another who were degree. Many of the fiJes have correspondence from
affected indirectly by that experience. parents or other family members thanking the super-
intendent for taking care of their loved ones when they
However, the story actually begins somewhat earlier, had no where else to turn. However, at the same time,
and the context is important. In many ways, Oregon re- there were also repeated warnings from administrators
capitulalCd the history of institutions that had played out and olher public officials that too many of these de-
earlier in the states in the Northeast and the Midwest. fective and dangerous people remained at large. The
Institutions for other segments of the disabled population same legislative committee that bemoaned the fact that
came first (the Oregon State insane Asylum-later the only 70 of '1000 inmates at Fairview in the early 19305
Oregon State Hospital-opened in 1882), along with were able to benefit from schooling viewed this trend as
special residential schools for the "the blind" and "the evidence of the continued threat posed to communities
deaf." The country's first public institution specifically by the higher functioning feebleminded boys and girls
targeting the feebleminded population had opened in stil1 at large.
Massachusetts some 60 years earlier under the aus·
pices of the educator and social activist, Samuel GridJey The institution is dealing almost entirely with the low
Howe. In the descriptions of these early institutions, there grade type who require custodial care mainly. It is
was a strong optimism-characteristic of reformers such not meeting the problem of the high grade morons,
as Howe-that with new instructional teclmiques and who are without proper training and supervision
"scientific" methods, "even" feebleminded and idiotic in our communities all over the state, and who form
children could be educated to become productive citizens the group of problem cases which ultimately come
(Ferguson, 1994, pp. 50-60; "[fent, 1994). However, as to our courts and social agencies and to the State
had been lrue of the insane asylums that preceded them, Training Schools (Oregon State Legislature, 1933,
the professional optimism surrounding these so-caUed p. 11).
"idiot asylums" soon diminished, and the role of the in-
stitutions increasingly came to be seen as protective of It is in this context that the committee recommended
society as much as therapeutic for the individuaL For that the legislature change the name of the institution
more and more of those admitted to these facilities, the to "eliminate the suggestion of feeblemindedness or dis-
prospect was one of permanent custody rather than tem- ability of any kind, and that a committee be appointed
porary remediation. to choose a suitable name" (Oregon State Legislature,
t933, p. 11). The name change bappened in the next
The pressure to place ever·larger numbers of individ- legislature and following the recommendation of tbe
uals in these facilities continued to grow. This pres- committee made no reference to feeblemindedness or
sure came not only from a growing fear that leaving disability. In 1933, the State Institution for the Feeble·
such individuals at large in the community contributed Minded became the Oregon Fairview Home. A!though
to a whole spectrum of social problems (disease. crime, not stated explicitly, it seems reasonably clear that at
prostitution, poverty, moral decay, etc.) but also from least one rationale for the name change was to make
those in charge of county almshouses, poor farms, commitment more palatable to family members of the
and state insane asylums, who complained that their "high-grade morons" that were seen as such a threat.
proper work was hampered by having to care for the
feebleminded and epileptic mixed in with their primary
population.

54 Ferguson

The expansion of involuntary commitment procedures Getting 1n
provides additional evidence that officials felt there was In response to this early concern, the commitment law
at least some family resistance to institutionalization of was changed so that any citizen could initiate the process
their children. Regardless of what prompted a family to to have someone conunitted to Fairview. As mentioned,
apply for admission of a child to Fairview in the earliest in the first few years of Fairview's existence. individuals
years of its existence, these "voluntary" admissions also could be admitted to Fairview by the family applying
allowed them to remove the child when they wished as directly to the superintendent through commitment pro-
well. The inmates at Fairview were seldom from wealthy cedures by county officials where the person lived. The
families during these early years, and for at least some admission forms are perhaps surprisingly dctaiJed, with
of these, it seems as though Fajrview was viewed not so separate documents to be completed by family mem-
much as an institution as it was a residential school with bers, physicians, and county judges. The items on the
summers and holidays off. Superintendent Smith com- form show the same tension between custodial and cura-
plained of the practice in 1916: tive perspectives that emerge in the language of the
early biennial reports. Much of the information is clearly
As it is now, we have practically no law on the developmental in nature, and in some ways the admission
subject. Children are brought to the institution at
the will of tbe parent or guardian and taken away form resembles all early developmental screening tool.
at their pleasure, and received again, often in the
case of girls, after having an illegitimate child to Can the person tie shoes, playa musical instrument, read,
be an additional burden to the State (Board of write, count? Other questions relate to behavior and offer
Control, 1917, p. 171). some curious extremes for parents to consider: Is he
"excitable or apathetic"? Is she "obstinate or passionate"?
The suggestion arhies, then, that the portrayal of fam- Is she "shy" or "frank" in her actions? There are also
ilies as unequivocally calting for the chance to place their questions that betray the continuing obsession with any
children in specialized institutions shouJd be replaced signs of sexual activity: Does she masturbate or engage in
by a more complex and varied account. Using examples other "VUlgar" activity? Finally. there are the questions
[rom case files of early residents, the correspondence that show the concern with heredity and eugenics, asking
between families and Fairview superintendents provides about any history of feeblemindedness on either side of
some insight into how the purpose and function of the the family along with nativity of both parents.
institution were frequent topics of negotiation.
Perhaps most revealing, however, is the question about
The official chronology of policies and programs., why the parents wanted to have their child admitted to
new buildings and old concerns, is fleshed out in the Fairview. Here it is the answers that show how at least
specifics of personal examples: a request for parents some families regarded Fairview as an alternative edu·
to send money for clothes; a thank you for kindness cational placernent-a residential school where the child
received; illnesses and accidents documented and dis- could gain some intensive tutoring and then be returned
cussed; or a family struggles with a decision and asks to the local school district Such individuaJ attention
for advice. AU of it seems immediately understand· would have been beyond the financial reach of most
able despite the passage of time. The records remind parents with children at Fairview, even if it had been avail-
us that behind all the changes in terminology, docu- able at all. One completed form shows this perception
mentation, bureaucracy, and policy, the institution was weU. In response to the form's question: "What are your
a place where people lived their lives with mixtures of reasons for desiring to place applicant in this institu-
happiness and sorrow and enrichment and deprivation. tion?" the father replies: ''To see if she can be started in
Especially for the early decades, by read~g the cor- her books."
respondence exchanged between family members and
the superintendent, a series of individual stories emerge However, the economics of dependency were clearly
that provide an often richer and certainly more detailed not always the only or even the primary source of a
narrative. t family's concern for their child's care. It should not sur-
prise us that, rich or poor, parents often struggled with
I All of the quotations in this section come from documents their decision to institutionalize their children. In an
contained in the case files of people admitted to Fairview before era when travel to and from Salem was often lengthy and
1930. Quotations from family members come from correspon- arduous for the families of inmates, before telephones
dence contained in these case files of residents. Most of the were common in every home, the letters to and from the
contents of those filcs (letters, incident reports, sterilization institution would be the only way for parents to hear of
approvals, ward transfers, etc.) were shredded after the closure their child's well-being. One mother's letter in 1913 shows
at Fairview in 2000. Medical information, admission and dis- the wrenching emotion of having sent her twin sons to
charge records, and some other information were retained and Fairview some 2 weeks earlier:
archived by the State of Oregon.
Would you please let me know how my little boys
are? Is Frank well and contented? Or does he seem
to miss me? Does Lee take any interest in his

The Doubting Dance 55

surroundings? I do so hope they are well and happy. agreed upon date but threatens not to readmit the boy
Please tell me just what you think of them. should the mother keep the child at home.

It was very hard to send t.bem away but Mr. and March 14, 1924
Mrs. H. gave such good reports of your home that
I am trying to be contented. I hope to hear rTom Dear Madam:
you soon. In regard to [your son], you can do as you choose, but
we cannot keep his place open for him, and by next
As with all such letters in this era, the superintendent fall we cannot be assured that there will be room to
responded personally to the parent's concerns not only admit him. As you say, however, the school term will
with words of reassurance but also with a tone of bureau- soon be finished and it might be advisable to wait.
cracy that seems not to acknowledge the anguish in the
original letter. The reply in full read: Sincerely yours,

Dear Madam; Gelling Out
Your sons arc well and contented. They have been The law gave the superintendent of Fairview total
here such a short time that we have had no chance control over discharge oj' an individual as an "unfit
to study them yet. Will let you know shouJd either subject" for the institution. Indeed, even for temporary
one of them get sick. Please enclose addressed trips home ("vacations") or more extended releases to
stamped envelope when writing for information. the family's care (home paroles). the superintendent
retained significant control. Families were required to
Less than 1 month later, Frank was dead. The super- sign "permits of responsibility" from the superintendent
intendent wrote the mother again: "Frank died this morn- before taking a son or a daughter home for a vacation,
ing at 10:50. Plea<ie let us know what disposition you with a date of return specified. The language clearly
wish of the remains. I sent it to Lehman and Clough indicated that these "vacations" were totally at the dis-
undertakers. ,.2 cretion of the superintendent and subject to revocation at
any time. Finally, in cases where fam.ilies requested ex-
More than one parent wrote the superintendent with tended or permanent release, they were now required to
expressions similar to the following mother, with mis- post surety bonds of $1000 or more, the money to be
givings about sending their child to the institution even forfeited should the person become a "burden to the
after the process had begun: state" once again. Because many families could not afford
to post such an amount, the absence of the bond became
March 11, 1924 a common reason listed in letters to tbe families denying
pcnnission for the resident to leave the institution.
Sir: Still, if it was hard for some families to send their
The only reason I want too (sic) send [my son] to children to Fairview, it was even harder for many of them
the State School is for the schooling and now will to leave them there. Certainly, in some cases, this concern
soon be the close of the school term I would rather seems to emerge only when help is needed on the farm
wait until fall tcnn but by so doing will he loose (sic) or LO help care for an ill parent. In other cases, the pIcas
his chance and have to be committed again. He seem heartfelt and tormented. The file for one resident
does not want to go back/he goes into a perfect identifies the mother as "retarded" in later reports, but
nervous frenzy. I don't know how 1 am going to for 10 years following her son's admission to Fairview,
prevail on him without force and that puts him into she was able to write repeatedly to the superintendent
such a terrible nervous state. asking for his release:

The superintendent's response to the mother's can· Now Dr., please stop and think one nunute. Doesn't
cern was probably not very comforting. The language is a mother's love go to (sic) deep for her children
interesting in that in this case, the superintendent does to be separated from them the way I have from
not instruct the paTent to bring the child back by the Albert. Now please let us hear a kind answer as

1l1e surviving twin boy lived at Fairview for another 50 years. soon as you can for Dr if r had only made a visit
However, it was only upon his death that a sister writes la· to the institution first, I do not think r would have
menting the fact that she just found out she even had a brother
living there. Apparently, the parcllts had ncver told the other been willing to place him there. Please let us know
children of the twins' exisLcnce and the institution had not ex- right away what we can do.
plored for possible relativcs after the parents' death, until the
last twin passed away. The superintendent consistently responded to this
mother's repeated requests with a requirement that the
family post the $HJOO.OO bond before they could take

56 Ferguson

the boy home even for a short vacation. By this time, that if you will take them out of Oregon and keep
the law allowed the superintendent to use his own dis- them out we will be willing to let them go.
cretion as to who should leave and for how long. Tn this
case, the superintendent remained unmoved even after When you come for them it will be necessary for
years of pleas from the mother: you to sign a permit, and it is understood that should
you come back the girls will have to be sterilized.
You Ijve close enough La the institution that is pos-
sible (sic) for you to visit Albert here occasionally, Yours very truly,
and I would prefer that you see him here rather than
to release him indefinitely. The boy needs institu- For some families, getting their relative "outn of Fair-
tional care, and it is far beucr that he remain here view was simply a logical conclusion to what they be.-
(5ntI930). lieved (or desperately hoped) to be the likely outcome to
getting in to Fairview in the first place. For these families,
lo other situations, the superintendent responded to a "cure" or at least dramatic improvement was a rea-
family requests for release of a relative by deferring the sonable expectation for their child after some definite
decision to the county officials involved in the original period of care at the institution. °nle superintendent tried
commitment. The following exchange between parent to be equally clear that such optimism was unfounded
and superintendent is typical: and that the feeblemindedness was permanent. Even
after the commitment procedure had changed, allowing
May 1925 for involuntary commitments and requiring court proce-
dures for everyone, the image of Fairview as primarily an
Dear Sir, educational option for children who were not succeeding
When will school be out? We would like to bring in public schools apparenUy continued to be held by some
our son home ror a while during vacation. Please families who applied for admission of their children.
answer soon and advise us.
Getting Cut
Reply: May 9, 1925 Perhaps the most poignant and troubling subject in
the correspondence of this era was that of sterilization
School will close about the middle of June. The and the attitudes of families about giving permission for
County court must be willing [for] the boy to go the surgery. In many cases, of course, there is no surviv-
home for a vacation before I could give my consent, ing correspondence to read. Where correspondence does
as he is being furnished by the county. survive, however, there are several patterns that emerge.
Tn some cases, it seems clear that the request for the
In many cases, rather than a focus on where the best sterilization itself was initiated by the families. For some
care could be provided, a mixture of rampant immoral- poor parents, the fear of a daughter (this pattern seems
ity and economic dependency seems to be at the heart of to have occurred most often with daughters) having a
much of the official concern with discharging or even child seemed ample justification to have the state per-
paroling inmates back to the care of their families. There form the operation. Indeed, for these parents, Fairview
was a fear that entire families or at least the feeble- seems to have functioned as a kind of inexpensive health
minded individual would become financial burdens of care plan. The child would be admined, the surgery per-
the county or the state welfare systems. In one such case, formed at no cost to the family, and then the family would
twin sisters had been admitted to Fairview when they push to have the person released back to their care. Of
were 12 years old under pressure on the family (rom course, it is hard to know how this parental perspective
the Board of Welfare. The father writes later that year was formed and what sequence of conversations with mu-
asking to have them released back to the family's custody nicipal and county officials had preceded this approach.
("We do not [want?] them to stay thaire eny (sic) longer Another common pattern seen in the correspondence
than we can take them."). From the superintendent's is where the superintendent uses the consent for the
reply, the father's letter was apparently followed by a visit sterilization procedure as the "price" of discharge back
to Fairview where discussion about leaving the state oc- to the family. In many of these cases, the "consent" of
curred. The superintendent replies on June 23, 1927: the families to the surgery seems ambivalent at best.
One mother described such feelings in a letter to the
Dear Sir, superintendent:
Since you were here Saturday 1 have discussed with
members of the Board [of Welfare] your taking June 15, 1931
Blanche and Hazel out of the State. It was decided
Those papers [i.e. the consent form1came to me a

(ew days ago and I sined (sic) them and sent them

The Doubting Dance 57

back. And will you please see that my daughter is and resistant, thankful and angry. Perhaps it is inevitable: .'
took good care of in that awful operation. If she
should die 1 don't know if T could stand it for I an awkward dance between partners each doubting the
would feel like it was my fault for giving my consent
to have her operated on. other's capacity to lead but tied together in an unavoid-

The superintendent's reply came a little over a month able push and pull across the floor.
later: "Hazel is well over ber operation and may go home
anytime you can arrange to come for her." References

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tury? What remains unanswered or unclear? Several capped (pp. 85-91). Boston: Porter Sargent. (Original work
responses emerge from this brief examination of the nar- published 1951).
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Board of Control. (1917). 5th biennial report: State Institution
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Received: October 20, 2008
Fma! Acceptance: January 13, 2009
Editor in Charge: Craig A. Michaels